The Final 4 Dancers

Judges: Nigel Lithgoe, Mary Murphy, Mandy Moore

It looks like someone took a roll of duct tape and spiraled up Cat Deeley’s body with it.

Courtney and Twitch – music: “Church,” T-Pain. The costumes are horrible, but the dance is kind of cute and quite silly. It’s nice to see Courtney dressed in something that isn’t totally slutty. She’s wearing brown plaid pants that look straight out of the ’70s. The dance is a fight (there have been a lot of those this season!) but they never actually seem angry. I don’t think they totally got into character. There is a terrible lift where he positions her over his head, and there is a pause while she gets into (awkward) position, then he starts spinning. He then puts his arms down and keeps spinning with her balanced on his head (this didn’t last long—it looked to me like she fell off early). Cool idea but it looked terrible. Mandy says it was a good way to start the show, and says Twitch is hysterical in character. Mary says she feels the “crazy judge thing” coming on and Nigel backs away from her, looking scared. She praises the routine. Then she screams. Horribly. Worse than usual. Nigel winces in pain. He says when the show is over he will miss everyone and everything except one thing—and he turns to Mary and does a crazy shriek. Ha! Unfortunately, Mary obviously thinks it’s a cute, endearing trait and all the teasing just encourages her to do it more. Ugh. Nigel thinks it was a great way to start the show.

Courtney Solo – Gosh, she is making dramatic grabby arm gestures, jumping, spinning, and throwing herself to the floor. Who could possibly have seen that coming? *sigh* She’s a good dancer but my god it’s dull when she does her own choreography. She gets really weepy during the judges’ remarks.

Katee and Joshua – music: “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room,” John Mayer. There is a lot of the flailing stuff that I dislike in contemporary routines, but a lot of the moves are really sharply executed together and skill-wise I think they danced it very well. Their hug at the end seemed very genuine. I want them to get married and be together forever and ever and have lots of dancing babies. But that’s just me. Mandy said it was very honest, but felt that it could have used a bit better leg/foot work. Mary says it was beautiful and says that she loves it when they dance together. Nigel says it was danced brilliantly, and he praises Joshua highly for his skill and control. He says Joshua is one of the best dancers they’ve ever had on the show.

Katee and Courtney – music: “The Trolley Song,” Rufus Wainwright. They look like a pair of cupcakes in the dresses they’ve been put in. They have to use umbrellas as props. The dance has a few moments that were impressive but mostly it seemed a little cheesy, and most of the moves seemed like they were setups to other moves that never came—a lot of running around and so on, without anything impressive at the end. There were a few leaps that were cool, but mostly it was running around. Mandy says it was cute. Mary says that it is dangerous dancing with umbrellas. Nigel says that Courtney doesn’t “finish” her moves as far as Katee.